Australia Releases First Comprehensive Guide On Best Health Care Practices For Transgender Youth

Australia has released its first comprehensive all-inclusive guide directing health care professionals about best practices concerning transgender youth.

Published by the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, the all-inclusive guide addresses standards of care for “trans and gender diverse children and adolescents.” Its authors include two pediatricians, a clinical psychologist and a research officer all from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

The guidelines cover topics including best language to respectfully address and affirm a young person’s identity, social transition methods to help transgender persons best acclimate themselves to a new gender environment and care for pre-pubertal children identified as transgender. The guide includes directives for nurses, general practitioners, gynecologists and therapists so that medical professionals do not make any faux pas or give inaccurate advice on methods to aid the gender transitioning process.

The guidelines offer fertility counseling for females who wish to conceive or have a surrogate conceive their biological child after they transition to the male gender. The report also addresses the role of legal practitioners as well as bioethicists who can help determine at what age and in which cases it is appropriate for a child to fully undergo a gender transition via hormone therapies and surgeries.

The bioethicists can also involve themselves in “treatment decisions involving adolescents who are especially vulnerable or at high risk, parents with conflicting and opposing views, or discordance in clinician opinion regarding an adolescent’s ability to provide informed consent or their best interests,” according to the guidelines.

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